Towards a Fairer Falkirk 2019-2024

Towards a Fairer Falkirk is a strategy for the Falkirk Community Planning Partnership which aims to mitigate the impact that poverty has on individuals, families and communities in our area. By reducing the impact that poverty has on day to day living today, we can reduce the longer term impact that it has on aspirations, achievements and health, particularly for today's children who are the parents of the future.

Our vision is for an inclusive and fairer Falkirk, with equality and equity of opportunity for all.

We want to make sure that everyone enjoys the benefits of living and working in this area and that people are not excluded or disadvantaged because of poverty.

To achieve this vision we will focus on four themes:

Fairer Access – making sure our services are focused on supporting people in or at risk of poverty and that when someone comes to us for support we deliver services around their needs, looking for opportunities to provide additional support

Fairer Money – making sure people are getting the benefits they are entitled to and that they have access to advice, support and appropriate financial products to help them make the most of the income they have

Fairer Childhood – reducing the impact of poverty on children through considering the cost of the school day, providing food and activities during school holidays and other interventions to support families

Fairer Culture – making sure people have a basic understanding of poverty and the impact it can have so that we reduce the stigma that can be associated with living in poverty and make sure services are designed to support people living on a low income

Child Poverty

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 requires local authority and NHS health boards to produce a report specifying what action is taking place, and is planned to take place, to tackle child poverty in their area.

In our poverty strategy 'Towards a Fairer Falkirk', we set out our aims to mitigate the impact that poverty has on individuals, families and communities in our area. Over the past few months, Falkirk Council and NHS Forth Valley have worked closely with various organisations and services who provide support to those in poverty. We were told about work reducing the impact of poverty on children right now and what else we could be doing in the future to engage with families and help support them as best we can.

This first report covers the period from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 and lays out this information in two tables, the first showing the actions for 2018/19 and the second showing the future priorities.